By Julie Chai, Sunset associate garden editor

At the recent Late Show garden show, we were thrilled by all the inventive displays. There were so many amazing creations that it's hard to narrow them down, but here are a few of our favorites. Above, garden designers Suzanne Biaggi and Patrick Picard created the Future Feast with edibles planted right into a tabletop. Produce doesn't get any fresher than that!

We also loved the way designer Beth Mullins turned tires inside out and used them as planters in her display:

I love it when people take matters into their own hands. So I was really excited to meet Amie Frisch, project director for Veggielution community farm, who’s intent on evolving the local food movement in the San Jose area.

Amie and cofounder Mark Anthony Medeiros met a couple years ago while they were apartment-dwelling students at San Jose State University. They both wanted space to grow fresh veggies, so Mark posted fliers in a nearby neighborhood asking residents if they’d share some growing ground in exchange for homegrown produce. They got more responses than expected and, along with other student volunteers, they tended several gardens but soon wanted a centralized place where people in the community could get involved. One thing led to another and, last spring, they were offered a quarter acre plot in Emma Prusch Farm Park in San Jose. And Veggielution was born.

Situated below the intersection of the 101 and 280/680 freeways in the middle of suburban San Jose, it might seem like an unlikely place for a farm. But the land was once a working dairy farm in what was nicknamed "the Valley of Hearts Delight," and Veggielution is thriving there. With guidance from master gardeners and experts, along with a team of eager volunteers, they're producing bushels of crops—150 pounds of which goes to local food banks every week.

“Once the city saw how we transformed it, they started taking us seriously,” Amie says. A few months ago, they were granted use of an additional acre, and a hundred people helped break ground on June 20. Draft horses plowed and dished, and volunteers planted a third of the acre (shown above) that day.

Amie wants Veggielution to be a community resource where people can learn about agriculture and the related issues of health, the environment, and social justice. "Access to healthy food should be a right," she says.

Anyone can take part in the farm's weekly volunteer days, and go to regularly-held classes on a range of topics—this Sunday you can learn about mushroom cultivation. "In cities, you don’t see farms," Amie says. "We want to give people that experience and to dig into it."

And if you’re free Saturday evening, you can attend the Bounty of Heart's Delight fundraiser which starts with appetizers at the farm, followed by dinnner at Eulipia—all made with local, sustainably-grown food, of course. The event supports Veggielution’s new program  for local high schoolers who’ll learn not only about farming, but also about leadership, communication, and community issues.

"By making something happen, we're hoping that others see it's possible," Amie says. "We want to be the hub of local food in the South Bay. And we want to grow awesome food."

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

Okay, I lied.  When I posted about Susan Van Atta's new book, The Southern California Native Flower Garden recently, I said I had decided on a replacement planting plan.  I had the one on the left in mind.  But, as I said in the post, this is a hard book to put down, and now I like the combo on the right just as well.

So, what do you think experienced native growers? 

Shall I go with Plan A, on the left:  Oceanspray (Holodiscus discolor), Heuchera maxima, and five-fingered fern (Adiantu aleuticum)?

Or Plan B, on the right:  Spicebush (Calycanthus occidentalis), Acalypha californica (California copperleaf), and Roger's Red grape?

I live in Sunset zone 24 and the area in question gets good morning sun and is in light shade in the afternoon.  I have silty loam soil.

Please advise.

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

  I always thought tri-cut gardening books--the kind where you flip pages back and forth to see different plant combos together--were just gimmicks.  So when The Southern California Native Flower Garden, which uses that format, appeared in the mail, I was fairly skeptical, even though I know and trust the author.  But there's no harm in road testing it, I decided.  And I used the book as a planning tool to come up with some alternative vignettes for a section of my native garden I'm not pleased with.

I'm still road testing.  Not that the book hasn't been useful--it's great, in fact.  It's just that it makes research so much fun, I'm having a hard time putting it down even though I'm pretty sure I've already decided on my replacement vignette.

The book is set up with plant illustrations on the right.  Tall on the top, medium in the middle, and low on the bottom.  The illustrations also show exposure, water needs, peak interest period, habitat value, and--we like this--Sunset climate zones.  And, on the left, there's a plant profile.  Most of them include companion plantings.  Using these suggestions to create vignettes is a great way to begin getting acquainted with the book's format.

The more you use the book, the better you get at making the most of it, I'm finding.  For instance, at first I was just paying attention to make sure the plants I was combining needed the same amount of sun and water.  But, then, after awhile, without really setting out to, I began combining plants that had the same origin--woodland, coastal sage, etc.--and the combinations, not surprisingly, looked like they belonged together.

I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised this would be a great book.  I've seen and loved many a Susan Van Atta garden--several of which have appeared in Sunset's pages.  And I know Van Atta dearly loves native plants and that the 164 species she's chosen for this book have been thoroughly vetted.  It's just the format I was dubious about.  And, surprise, surprise, it's what I like best.

If you can't find the book at your usual sources, you can order it on-line directly from Gibbs Smith, the publisher.

By Julie Chai, Sunset associate garden editor

Photos by Alicia Martin

We can't wait to check out the Late Show Gardens, a brand new garden show at Cornerstone in Sonoma, California focusing on design and sustainability. We've been looking forward to it for months since the contributors are some of the biggest names in horticulture—essentially the who's who of the garden scene—from the Bay Area and beyond.

As you can imagine, pulling together a garden show is a major undertaking. It involves endless planning and organizing, and the week before the show, when designers actually start building the display gardens, is especially intense. Tons of soil are hauled in, along with large trees, landscape art, and accessories—the photo above is a behind-the-scenes look at two displays, Growth Melt and Overgrowth, in progress. We can't wait to see what they look like when they're done!

The show kicks off this Thursday 9/17 with an evening preview party, and runs through Sunday 9/20. I'll be there Friday—hope to see you there!

For info and tickets, go to thelateshowgardens.org or call 415/721-1550.

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

Honey bees get all the press , but they don't do all the work.  There are dozens of species of native bees equally willing to pollinate your plants.  One of them, the bumble bee, we all know and love.  But the smaller ones -- Anthidium, Xylocopa, Osmia, Halictid, Andrenid, Megachillid, Mlissodes, Anthophorid, -- you likely don't even notice.  The guy seen here--a Halictid, I'm guessing--is an example.

It's not hard to attract more of these hard workers to your garden.  All it takes is providing the right nectar plants.  Emerson Commmunity Garden in San Luis Obispo is proving just how quickly you can get results. 

The gardeners using the twenty nine plots in the Garden began an experiment with entomologist Dr. Gordon Frankie of the University of California Berkeley in 2007.  They began adding flowers known to attract these bees to their individual plots.  (The gardeners were primarily interested in growing edibles, and there were few ornamentals in the Garden when the experiment began.)

It didn't take long to see an increase in the number and type of bees showing up. What's more, says Barbara Smith, one of the plot holders and the local coordinator of the project -- it's her space you see below -- everyone in the community garden has seen improvements in their crop yields. And yields get a little better each season as the gardeners learn more about bee gardening and the number and variety of bees keeps improving.

You don't have to grow anything exotic either as you can see.  Toadflax (Linaria purpurea) gallardia, catmint, asters, rudbeckia, and salvias -- all common garden ornamentals -- are doing a great job luring in native bees at Emerson Community Garden.  There is no shortage of honey bees here either. 

If you're in San Luis Obispo drop by and take a look.  Emerson is at the corner of Nipomo and Pismo Streets.  Look for plants with markers like this to see what they're luring in.  Or visit the U.C. Berkeley  Urban Bee Gardens website to find out what to plant.

Sunset's garden staff is so enthused about the success of the Emerson example, we're going to add some of the plants from Dr. Frankie's list in our own test garden.  Can you have the same success in a small garden about the size as a typical backyard as you can in a community garden?  We'll let you know.

Or, if you're doing it already, please tell us about your successes.

By Hazel White, Sunset contributor

Photo by Marion Brenner

 A new outdoor garden show, focusing on design and sustainable practices, runs September 18–20 at Cornerstone Sonoma. See 18 gardens that propose imaginative solutions to climate change by designers such as Chandler and Chandler, Beth Mullins, Gary Ratway, and Shirley Alexandra Watts. Among the 19 speakers are photographer/author Ken Druse, Tom Fischer of Timber Books, Mark Hertsgaard, environment correspondent for The Nation, and garden designers Glenn Withey and Charles Price. Shopping is horticultural top of the line: Australian Native Plants Nursery, Chimera Nursery, Digging Dog Nursery, Momiji Nursery, Renee’s Garden Seeds, San Marcos Growers, Sunnyside Organic Seedlings and many more. For information and tickets: www.thelateshowgardens.org or 415/721-1550.

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

A nice, shaggy native meadow with skyscrapers nearby?  Where the heck is this, you might ask?  And I'd ask, too, if I hadn't seen it myself.

This tiny meadow is in Venice.  It's the roof top portion of the garden Jeff Pervorse of Bent Grass Landscape Architecture designed I posted about yesterday.  This green roof looks out at the city and down on a second-story deck off the clients' master bedroom. 

It is planted with Mokelumne fescue (F. occidentalis) and Agrostis pallens, a native bent grass, plus beach primrose (Camissonia cheiranthifolia.).

Can you imagine how much fun it would be to stand here at twilight and watch the city lights come on from an insect's point of view?

Since you can barely see the garden in the shot I posted earlier, let's zoom in on it.

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

photo by Yvette Roman Davis

Horse troughs is the answer.  This is from the garden of Corey Milligan in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.  I found it on Yvette's blog, Beyond the Lawn.  There are more photos and details about Milligan's lovely garden on her post.